Friday, November 20, 2009

"Unfriend" Word of Year 2009




Do you have a social networking website account? Facebook? Multiply? This year, the social networking has proven that it has a huge cultural force.



"Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.
Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking side such as Facebook.
"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, in a statement.
"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year." (Source: Reuters)

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Example, "I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight."






Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year.

Oxford lexicographer Christine Lindberg says unfriend has "real lex appeal."

Finalists for 2009 also included netbook, which is a small laptop, and sexting, which is sending sexually explicit texts and pictures by cell phone.

This announcement will surely be applauded by Facebook, Myspace and other social networking users.

I am not a wordsmith nor a lexicon or scrabble expert; after you have read this post, I'll appreciate if you could enlighten me on the words defriend and refriend? Now I am more confused, the important thing is that you are my friend.

9 comments:

  1. Un-friend

    bago sa pandinig at bago sa paningin...
    pero nakakalito...
    parang english patan o pana lang..

    heheheh...

    thanks for sharing kuya

    "sana wag magalit ang mga ina-unfriend ko sa FB"
    hehehehe

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  2. awww..you are my friend too kuya..^__^ and the word refriend is more appealing for me..

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  3. unfriend...
    bago yun ah! tama si jen...parang english patan at pana lang. hehehe... hindi ko gusto yang word na yan...o nanibago lang talaga ako? nyahahaha!!

    pero ang pinaka importante sa lahat e ang kaibigan mo kami at kaibigan ka din namin :)

    have a nice weekend kuya! =)

    ReplyDelete
  4. additional sa vocabulary ko yan bro. shokran. have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ditto.

    Come to think of it: defriend sounds (huh?) better than unfriend. At sa tingin ko naman they have the same meaning, like when you debone the chicken, you take out the bone. So when you defriend a friend, you leave out your friend; get rid of the friendship. (Hehe! Natawa ako sa sarili ko).

    Refriend I suppose means making amends with your friend after a fight.

    Natawa rin ako sa sexting. Parang sextant which, in reality, has nothing to do with anything sexual.

    ReplyDelete
  6. (Smiling...) Wow! Gusto ko itong post niyo ngayon. Galing naman ng bagong verb, 'unfriend'.

    Uhmn, DEFRIEND at REFIREND?! Mahirap. Ganito nalang kaya? Sa thanksgiving mass ni M. Pacquiao sa Las Vegas, parang na-defriend siya ni Jinky. Noong press conference naman sa Manila pagdating nila, ni-refriend na siya ni ng misis niya. (Para na rin ito sa previous post niyo tungkol kay Manny.)

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  7. thanks for sharing. i learned something today :)

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  8. unfriends, should be changed to: get lost, lol

    joke lang.
    I feel, kung pepwede: disfriend na lang,
    gaya ng associate to dis associate.
    Ewan, at the moment halo halo lenguahe ng utak ko.
    BASTA, yun na yun! bon dimanche!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hehehe :D Ayos to pre ah...dagdag sa kaalaman

    ReplyDelete

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